Suture anchors are well known in the art. Such anchors are provided with anchoring means by which the anchor is secured to a bone or other bodily part of a mammal, principally humans. The anchoring means typically comprise screw threads and/or barbs, or the like. Suture anchors further comprise means for attaching a suture to the anchor, such that once the anchor is set in a bone, the suture extends therefrom and can be used to attach a ligament, or the like, to the bone, or to support other soft tissue relative to the bone, e.g., to suspend the neck of the bladder from the pelvic bone, etc.
In U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/393,553, filed Feb. 23, 1995 by E. Marlowe Goble et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 5,370,662, issued Dec. 6, 1994 to Kevin R. Stone et al.; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,607,432, issued Mar. 4, 1997 to Joseph Fucci, there are shown suture anchors having a threaded distal portion for anchoring the device in bone and a proximally-extending connector portion having a bore therethrough for receiving a suture.
A number of other generally similar anchor devices are well known in the art.
By and large, devices of this type have been successfully used in many surgical situations. At times, however, in the course of anchoring the device or manipulating the suture after having anchored the device, the suture breaks, usually proximate the anchor, leaving the anchor in a useless condition within the bone. Usually, the suture-less anchor is simply left in place in the bone and a new anchor, with its suture intact, is set alongside the suture-less anchor. Of course, the suture-less anchor occupies the position which was initially selected by the surgeon as the best location for the anchor, and the new anchor necessarily must be placed in a "next best" location.
It is preferable to withdraw the first anchor so that the second anchor, with its attached suture, may be put in the place of the first anchor. However, withdrawal of the first anchor from a bone requires unscrewing the anchor from the bone, which requires placing a hefty turning force on the anchor.
Accordingly, there exists a need for a suture anchor retriever and a method for unscrewing a suture anchor from bone, or other bodily part, thereby to remove the anchor from the bone or body part, such that a second anchor may be inserted in the place formerly occupied by the retrieved anchor.